Resumes and portfolios are only two of the elements necessary to make a powerful first impression when presenting yourself to a new employer (or recruiter!). There are a myriad of additional elements which can help separate you from your colleagues when being considered for a new career opportunity.
Testimonials, recommendations, white papers, case studies or other "documents" (In this case, I'm using "documents" to include images, videos or any other kind of media file.) that you may have can help show your career achievements and your ability to add value to your employers. It's surprising to me that more top professionals don't utilize what their employers, peers and clients have to say about their performance on a particular project or team. It can be anything from an email from a either a client or your boss thanking you for a job well done, to a formally recognized achievement, like an award. Your LinkedIn Profile is certainly one place where displaying recommendations can be a significant credibility builder. Having someone else say something positive about you is obviously better than saying it yourself! I believe it's a powerful marketing technique and frequently use it myself, for example on our website.
It would be terrific if there was a place to "host" those compliments, recommendations, white papers and other media files, so that they could easily be incorporated into letters of introduction and resumes. The ability to create a free blog has been taken advantage of by many who want an online place to "host" all of the documents relevant to a job search . . . and they work very well.
Others are less comfortable with creating the blog and organizing all the documents so that the visitor to that blog can quickly and easily navigate to the right place (document) at the right time. For those of you who find yourselves in that particular boat, there's some relatively new technology out there that can be a tremendous asset for you. It's called Dropbox.
Dropbox allows you to sync your files online and across your computers automatically . . . up to 2GB worth for free! That in itself has tremendous value. My computer was recently taken out of service for several days as a result of some killer (literally) virus. While I had a backup laptop and was able to do some work, I didn't have access to any of the documents on the "sick" computer. I have now uploaded all of the documents that I used on a daily basis to Dropbox. I can now access those files from any computer with internet access . . . Fabulous!
The way Dropbox can be used on resumes and cover letters is this. Suppose you have a number of testimonials/recommendations from colleagues or clients or other media files that can enhance your presentation. You can now put copies of each of those documents (or other media) in a Dropbox "Public" folder. That public folder attaches a unique link for that document, which can then be embedded in your resume. Click here to see how I handle it, or you could link to each document or file individually. That link is being handled through the Dropbox public folder.
Now, even your Word.doc can become a much more compelling document with the additional capabilities provided by Dropbox. This is now a very simple (and free!) method of adding significant new information to your resume, without adding any additional pages. I'm betting that you can think of all kinds of clever ways to incorporate this technology into your your document and your work flow.
I'm also betting you'll find the value in hosting some frequently used documents with Dropbox.